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Platformers have come a long way since Super Mario, with ever changing design choices, art styles and a lot more. Super Meat Boy is a fresh take in this classical genre.
First of all, Super Meat boy was developed by Team Meat, whose “team” consists of two guys.
Two.
Guys.

It’s an amazing accomplishment for 2 men to make such a fun, complex game.

You play as Meat boy, as his name suggests he is a boy without skin. Our dear meat boy is trying to save his girlfriend Bandage Girl. The big twist on this is that Dr Fetus (A fetus in a glass tube with a monocle) is jealous of Meat boy, and *Gasp* Kidnaps Bandage Girl. So Meat boy is on this epic quest to save Bandage Girl. This serves as a vehicle for the entire game and works pretty damn well. It’s a funny take on the whole “girl gets kidnapped scenario”. The game is chock full of funny scenes at the start and end of each of the worlds (Of which there are 5.)

The gameplay itself is extremely similar to the game N+ and the later Megaman X titles. Meat boy can double jump, hang on walls and has a run button. Of course, Meat boy is not the only playable character in the game, you can unlock others that have different attributes, the nice thing about this is that all of the unlockable characters are all from indie games. Such as Mr. Minecraft, Captain Viridian and many others. These characters can be unlocked from collecting bandages in levels, which are strategically placed for the simple reason of pissing you off because they are in such hard places to reach. Characters can also be unlocked by finding secret “Warp Zones” in levels, an obvious throwback to the Super Mario platformers. However, you don’t just unlock the character from spotting the warp zone. You have to play as the character you are about to unlock through a gruelling 3 levels. So unlocking characters is no easy feat, but the satisfaction you get from finally completing the warp zone or getting a bandage is phenomenal. It’s a brilliant addition to the game that heavily affects the way you play it, making you choose alternate routes for the bandages and making you think about the level’s design to get all the timing, jumps and your route juuust right.

In addition to the standard 5 worlds there are “Dark” worlds. Which are pretty much the “Fuck you” versions of the levels in the standard world. These worlds have additional Bandages and warp zones. To unlock these world you have to complete the standard world version at or under the par time to get an A+ rank. The addition of the Dark worlds give you a lot more to do in Super Meat Boy. And sometimes the other version in the Dark level hardly resembles the standard world version. This gives Super Meat boy a lot of replayability, unlocking all the dark worlds, finding the warp zones and collecting all the bandages is surely a feat that only few can achieve.

The levels range from being super easy to almost impossible, Super Meat Boy’s level design is phenomenal. This houses an exceptional platforming engine with fantastic physics, as shown by some of the obstacles in the game such as portals, fans and strange glowy lightbulb things that make life insanely hard by repelling gravity. These are just the tip of the iceberg for the amount of obstacles that get thrown at you In Super Meat Boy. With some levels making you focus on speed, and others making you focus on precision timing and twitchy reflexes.
At the end of every world there is a boss, these bosses will introduce a new obstacle of some sort (doing the level in a specific time, lava rising and a massive monster thing) and these, like all bosses should be, are amazingly hard.

The artstyle presented in Super Meat boy is very self aware, clean and is essentially a parody of itself. This cute style works well with the context of Super Meat boy. It provides a clean, slick look for the game and can run on pretty much any PC while looking fantastic at the same time.

The music in Super Meat Boy is not actually done by team meat, but done by dB soundworks, who have worked on other indie games such as the popular flash/iphone game Canabalt. The music itself is done predominantly in a chiptune style with a modern twist. The music for each world is suitable, to say the least and provides a good atmosphere for the entire game.

Overall, Super Meat Boy is a fantastic addition to any self respecting gamer’s library. This platformer is brutal, has some hilarious cutscenes and offers a huge amount of replayability. Delivering unique levels and tight controls. Super Meat boy is easily one of the best XBLA / Indie games released in 2010. Super Meat boy is on PC, XBLA and is coming to Wiiware soon.

MLG Rating: 10/10

Platform: Xbox 360 / Wiiware/ PC Release Date: 20/10/2010

Disclosure: The title was reviewed over the course of 14 days on an gaming PC. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

This entry was posted
on Saturday, December 18th, 2010 at 12:00 and is filed under Reviews.
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